


Nothing but the Winter

by kasia



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 60s Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe, Assassination, Cold War, Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK assassination, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2014-06-03
Packaged: 2018-02-03 05:33:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1732943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kasia/pseuds/kasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When history did not cooperate, history was changed. AU in which Captain America is discovered at the start of the Cold War.</p><p>"Have you ever been to Texas before, Captain?" asked President Kennedy as they shook hands.</p><p>"No, sir," answered Steve.</p><p>"I'm campaigning in Dallas next week. Governor Connally extended the invitation to you as well. Jackie would love to have you with us."</p><p>"I would be honored, sir."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing but the Winter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sodafly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sodafly/gifts).



> This stemmed from my fascination with JFK's presidency, my love for the MCU, and a conversation I had with my best friend after seeing The Winter Soldier for the first time. Huge thank you to Ellis (aka fondueable on tumblr), who was my guiding light through writing this first section.

When history didn't cooperate, history was changed.

xXx

John Fitzgerald Kennedy took the presidential oath on the twentieth of January, 1961. This was problematic. Captain Steven Grant Rogers was discovered adrift in the arctic circle the following December. This was even more so.

xXx

Peggy Carter was the first person to visit the captain in the hospital. It was during their initial meeting that she introduced him to SHIELD. She stepped into the room as an agent on official business.

"Captain Rogers," she addressed him sharply. Her heels clicked against the tile floor. "I am Agent Carter of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement Logistics Division. I would like to speak with you about joining the organization." Tears welled in Peggy's eyes.

Steve, sunken into the hospital bed with an IV in his forearm and heart monitors taped to his chest, agreed without hearing another word. "It'd be a pleasure to serve my country, ma'am."

It was every meeting after that she eased him into the new decade. Peggy, now soft and wrinkled with graying hair, showed him pictures of her husband, her children. Steve never asked about going dancing.

xXx

Sally Jones approached the door with her chin turned to the sky. She clutched a briefcase in one hand and her lunch pail in the other, with her purse slung over one shoulder. A black operative at SHIELD was not unheard of, but a female black operative was simply out of the question.

"Let me get the door for you, miss," said Steve, gliding around the young woman and opening the door for her.

Sally bounced on her toes, curtsying gently. "Thank you, sir." No man had ever gone out of his way to hold open a door for her before.

xXx

"Steve, this is Agent Sally Jones," Peggy smiled. "You two will be working together."

Sally looked to him across the table, the man who had opened the door for her. She nodded and smiled at him. Steve reached across the table to shake her hand.

xXx

Steve had never known a world so paranoid.

"My generation lives like there is no future," explained Sally one day at the shooting range. She stood squarely, dressed in red and yellow, with her pistol aimed at the target. "Because we have been taught that there will be no future. We have been taught to hide under our desks at school because we will be bombed."

Steve did not understand, he did not know what the atomic bomb was. Sally did not have the heart to tell him.

"People hate the Soviets more than they hated the Nazis," she said. "That's what my father says, anyway." She had been too young to know the world at war.

"The Russians were are allies," Steve reminded her. He unloaded his gun at the target.

"Yes, until the moment we won the war." Sally never had the opportunity to speak so candidly before. All her life she had heard nothing but 'hold your tongue, Sally' and 'that's not very ladylike, Sally'. "Now, they're itching to drop an a-bomb on us."

Later that evening, he saw a cartoon on television. It was short, only a few minutes long, and Steve watched out of awe at the animation. The cartoon was about a turtle hiding in its shell, teaching kids how to hide if America was bombed.

xXx

Months passed very quickly for Steve. He was a celebrity, even two decades after the war ended. President Kennedy invited him to dinner at the White House on the Fourth of July. He met with Sally Jones and her father, Gabe, for lunch once a week. At first, he felt guilty for subjecting Sally to their reminiscing of their Howling Commandos days, but she enjoyed herself. Every Sunday evening, Steve joined Peggy and her husband for dinner.

SHIELD was prepping him for another world war during the week of October 14 1962. The Soviets were trying to move nuclear missiles into Cuba. The world watched in horror as mutually assured destruction became eminent. The crisis fizzled out by the 28th.

Steve lived the next year day in and day out. The twenty years his friends had but he did not caught up with him. He still felt too small for his skin.

xXx

"Have you ever been to Texas before, Captain?" asked President Kennedy as they shook hands.

"No, sir," answered Steve.

"I'm campaigning in Dallas next week. Governor Connally extended the invitation to you as well. Jackie would love to have you with us."

"I would be honored, sir."

xXx

Dealey Plaza was swarmed with people. Steve sat in a sleek limousine with the Vice President, dressed in decorated uniform. He smiled and waved when people waved at him, but the whole event put him on edge.

Three gunshots rang out through the plaza. Steve whirled in the direction of the sound. In the car ahead of him, Jackie Kennedy held the president's bloody head in her lap.

Two gunmen, there had to be. There were two assassins and a dying president.

Steve slung his shield over his back, climbed out of the limousine, and bolted in the direction of the gunshots.

He rounded the corner, weaving through crowds of bystanders, racing after the gunmen. Finally, Steve caught a glimpse of who he was chasing after: a flash of metal and mess of straggly hair. He cut down a narrow alleyway and beat the gunman to the curb.

"On the ground," Steve barked, hurling himself at the assailant. He hooked around the man's waist and they both landed face-down on the pavement. Steve tore the rifle away from the sniper's grasp and tossed it across the street.

The sniper clawed at Steve's throat with his metal hand, choking him. Steve ripped himself from the asphalt and sputtered. The sniper was up on his feet again, darting into the shadows, throwing knives over his shoulders. Steve forced himself around the knives zipping past his ears.

He grabbed his shield off his back and threw it ahead of him, aiming for the gunman's back. The dark man caught the shield with his metal arm, without flinching.

Steve finally saw his face. Staring back at him, with tired eyes and unkempt stubble, was Bucky Barnes.

"Bucky!" he ground through clenched teeth, catching his shield as Bucky flung it in his direction.

xXx

Sally looked into her compact mirror. She painted her lips red and pinched her cheeks until they were pink. She was being presented before both founders of SHIELD today, she was about to look her best.

"It has only been twenty years, he could still be alive," Sally reminded her partner. He sat rigidly beside her at the conference table. "Like my dad."

Steve shook his head. "I saw him die. He fell."

Peggy entered, high heels clicking, with Howard Stark behind her. "Kennedy has been dead for approximately thirty-six hours, Johnson has been in office for approximately thirty."

"We have one sniper in custody," said Howard Stark. "Lee Harvey Oswald. He claims to have acted alone."

"What about Bucky?" asked Steve. "Find him, find out why he did this, who he's working for?" He was not about to believe that his best friend, who had virtually not aged in twenty years, assassinated the president of the United States by his own will.

Howard raised an eyebrow at Peggy. "Bucky?" he echoed.

"Sergeant James Barnes," Peggy explained. "Gave his life during the war. The sniper Steve ran after resembled him, apparently." She tsked.

"We are having a task force analyze a recording of the assassination, the Zapruder film. From there, SHIELD will determine whether or not Oswald acted as a lone sniper and act accordingly." Peggy Carter had never sounded more authoritative in her life.

xXx

Lyndon B. Johnson sat at the head of the Oval Office. Just outside, Kennedy's secretaries were packing up their things into cardboard boxes, mourning the president and the loss of their jobs. President Johnson was not about to keep staff he could not trust.

Someone knocked from the other side of the door. Johnson allowed them to enter. "There is an urgent telephone call waiting for you on the pay phone down the street," said the secret serviceman. Johnson followed him out the door.

The night was crisp. It was not yet cold enough to be considered winter, but Johnson donned his winter coat nevertheless. He was escorted down the street by two of his most trusted secret servicemen. They night sky was speckled with stars.

"Mister President," said the man on the telephone line. His English was precise and heavily tinged with a Russian accent. "Good evening."

"General Karpov," greeted Johnson blithely. He was anything but happy to hear from this man.

"I would like to congratulate you on taking your oaths," Karpov sneered. "You will make a very fine president."

"Thank you."

"Please do not forget to take good care of my boy while he is in America. He is still there on business, you know."

"Of course."

xXx

"Coffee?" Steve offered. He stood with a mug in either hand, one outstretched to Sally.

"Thanks," she said, taking the mug from him. She set it on the cafeteria table in front of her and wrapped her palms around it, breathing in the steam. "How are you doing?"

Steve slid into the seat across from her, sipping from his mug. "You mean after seeing my dead best friend?" he asked.

"Yes." Her hands were burnt by the coffee mug. "I can always sneak out a copy of the Zapruder film, get my dad to look at it. That way someone can verify you're not seeing things."

"No, you don't have to do that." Steve shrugged. "Don't get yourself in trouble for me."

"Then I will get permission from Agent Carter's permission to show it to him," offered Sally.

Steve smiled. It was one of those grateful, lopsided smiles of his that made Sally remember he was still a kid from the forties. "Thank you, but no thank you."

Sally nodded and sipped from her mug. She cringed, it was cheap SHIELD coffee. She didn't know what she had expected. "So are we going after the Soviets, then?"

"Only after Oswald talks."

xXx

Captain Rogers and Agent Jones stood on the outside of the interrogation room, looking in through the one-way mirror. Lee Harvey Oswald sat on the far side of a metal table, handcuffed. Agent Madden, a criminology and psychology expert, paced before him.

"I didn't shoot anybody," Oswald insisted. When he spoke, Sally could see that his right lateral incisor had been removed. It was SHIELD protocol, Sally guessed they found the tooth to be a cyanide capsule. "You can't hold me without official charges."

"At the very least, you can be charged with the second-degree murder of a Dallas police officer," said Agent Madden. "At the most, the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy."

"I didn't shoot anybody," repeated Oswald. He slammed his hands down on the desk, rattling his handcuffs. "That's how they died, right? They were shot."

Beside her, Captain Rogers shook his head. "He's lying," he noted beneath his breath.

"I think Madden knows that." Truthfully, Sally was not impressed by the interrogation. She tapped her foot impatiently. "This is going in circles."

"Under the Fourth Amendment, I'm free to go," smirked Oswald. "Unless you plan on arresting me."

Sally stepped toward the door. Steve caught her by the crook of her arm. "You're not allowed in there," he reminded her lowly. "What do you think you're doing?"

"It's called a leap of faith, Cap." Sally smiled and shook away his hand. "I'm helping you find your guy." She opened the door to the interrogation room. "Lee Harvey Oswald, you are under arrest for assassinating the president of the United States."

xXx

President Johnson's sleek limousine rounded the gravel drive at the front of the hospital. The building was planted in black earth and hidden from the road by tall oak trees. When Johnson had received word from Karpov the previous week, he had ordered the upstate mental hospital to be evacuated in order to house the Winter Soldier.

The Winter Soldier had been out of cryofreeze for just over forty-eight hours. President Johnson was worried - the US didn't have the technology to wipe him and start over like the Soviets, the US didn't have trained handlers that knew how to keep the Winter Soldier as a lapdog.

One of Johnson's secret servicemen escorted the president inside. The hospital lobby was guarded by several Hydra agents, equipped with heavy assault rifles. Each of them saluted the president as he passed. "Thank you, gentlemen," said Johnson curtly before saluting: "Hail Hydra!"

"Mister President!" greeted Ivan Mikhailov. He was General Karpov's right-hand man, tasked with handling the Winter Soldier while he was in America. He stood before the soldier's door. "How good to see you!"

"Mikhailov. I have another task for your boy." Johnson tsked. "Since he failed to complete the first one."

The Russian man was offended. He smoothed his already-greased hair away from his face nervously. "JFK was assassinated, was he not?" Mikhailov chuckled.

"But Captain America was not." Beside him, Johnson's secret serviceman chortled lowly. "Jacqueline Kennedy is not a threat as a witness, but Steve Rogers is."

Ivan Mikhailov nodded and opened the door to the Winter Soldier's chamber. Inside, a bare-chested man with a metal arm lay tethered to an operating table. His hair was scraggly and stubble unkempt. In the corner of the room sat a metal tray with scalpels and other surgical knives.

"What did you think you were doing?" demanded President Johnson, slamming his fists down on either side of the Winter Soldier's head. The man struggled against his restraints, he was worn and looked like he was going to cry. "I was told you could finish the damn job!"

"One more chance," pleaded Ivan Mikhailov. "One more chance."

Johnson shoved his fist up into the Winter Soldier's mouth. His knuckles were bloody when he pulled his hand away. "One chance."

xXx


End file.
